Evolutionary sex wars continue despite peace treaties

EVOLUTIONARY wars of the sexes are less easily resolved than previously thought.

Genetic conflicts over physical traits that help one sex but harm the other sometimes appear to be settled by a trait evolving to develop only in the sex it benefits, as with the flamboyant tails of male peacocks, for instance. Now, however, David Hosken of the University of Exeter, UK, has shown these battles can have surprising knock-on effects - at least in broad-horned flour beetles.

Males of this species use their large mandibles for fighting, and those with the biggest mandibles win more fights and attract more mates. Females have much smaller mandibles. Hosken bred 12 generations of beetles to create groups in which all the males had either small, large or average-sized mandibles. As expected, those with larger mandibles were more successful ...

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